Arizona Baseball: Wildcats win, but at Pitchers’ Expense?

In a do or die situation, the Arizona Baseball team rose to the occasion once more, defeating UC Santa Barbara in an elimination game setting.

The Wildcats are certainly becoming ones for drama this year. After desperately needing to win in their Lafayette Regional to advance, Arizona once again found themselves in a similar situation on Wednesday evening.

Losing in disappointing fashion to Oklahoma State 1-0 on Monday night, the Wildcats were one game away from elimination coming into Wednesday’s game with the Gauchos. Omaha certainly brings out some of the best baseball to be seen, and if we have learned anything this year from this scrappy Wildcat team, it is resilience, especially in these elimination games.

Come Friday in their rematch with the Cowboys; Arizona will have played their 11th game in the last three weeks.

While that is certainly a lot of baseball to be played, especially at the Collegiate Level, this is the playoffs, winning reigns supreme, and competition drives out the best in the sport.

Unless you have been living under a rock, then you probably have heard the rumblings on social media, regarding head coach Jay Johnson’s supposed “pitcher abuse.”

This is after Bobby Dalbec threw an impressive game against Oklahoma state in game two when the Cats lost 1-0. Arizona’s pitchers are rising up to the occasion.

Call it what you will, but this is a fallacy, driven only to get attention by those crying foul. Need we remind you, Johnson’s job success and security are dependent upon his ability to not only coach but to win games. After all, that is what he and every college coach are hired to do.

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Coach Johnson is not here to strictly develop, and hope luck strikes his program just right, so he can build incredible and sustainable depth, competitive enough to make consistent and deep, playoff runs.

Talking heads like Keith Law, fail to take a few things into consideration. First, these college kids are pitching once, maybe twice per week on occasion.

If we’re really trying to compare apples-to-apples (college to pros), the discrepancy in the number of games played, and innings pitched per year and by player, is going to vary greatly. So the number of pitches and innings senior Nathan Bannister has seen and will throw this year, will be far fewer than big leaguer Zack Greinke.

Secondly, these kids are student-athletes. They’re not spending every waking moment focusing on baseball, keep in mind their daily schedule (while school is in session), is going to differ than a professional baseball player, who wakes up and is focused on baseball. So again, they’re not training their arms quite as hard on a day-to-day basis. Some of the Pitchers are filming more music video’s, has anyone factored air bat guitar into their analysis?

Lastly, given the advancements by the NCAA, and the strides they have made to protect the student athlete, I vehemently detest that this media hound would accuse the coaching staff to being irresponsible and negligent as to abusing its players for their own personal gain.

Perhaps most important, given the now recent attention of the program, junior pitcher JC Cloney, has already come forward in defense of his coaches.

Next: Arizona Baseball: Preview of Cats next Opponent, Oklahoma State

Post-game celebration:

Arizona will battle in a win-or-go-home scenario with Oklahoma State again on Friday, after having a tough time finding any offense against a very talented Cowboys pitching squad Monday night. The game is set for 12 p.m. Tucson time, and will be featured on ESPN2. Bear Down, Arizona!